Catcalls Are Never Flattering -- Despite What One Woman Thinks

A writer from the New York Postrecently confessed that she loves summertime because it allows her to wear fewer articles of clothing, enjoy the hot sun -- and be victimized by a bunch of guys on the street who think nothing of catcalling, whistling, and calling her "sweet boobs."

Okay, I made that last part up. But yes, the attractive writer did admit she enjoys "wolf whistles" because they send her "ego soaring." And maybe I need to be easy on her -- perhaps she's fearlessly stating something that is a fact for many straight women: we enjoy the attention of men. To her credit, she separates the "good" catcalls from the "bad:" it's one thing for a man to call a woman "beautiful," and quite another to call her out for having a "big rack."

Only she's missing the point here. Catcalls aren't about US. They are only for the benefit of the men who shamelessly resort to using them.

The writer of this essay says she discovered the magic of catcalls when she was a mere 20-year-old flower who worked as an intern for MTV. She appreciated the way these men -- she speaks a great deal about construction workers, by the way -- spoke their minds and didn't play games the way college guys did.

I feel sad for this woman -- not because she doesn't deserve all of the attention she can get -- she's absolutely gorgeous -- but because she has allowed the comments of strangers to have such a great impact on her self-worth. When men pass comments about our beauty on the street, we are a thought to them for, maybe, a millisecond before they move on to the next female in a skirt.

Their goal isn't to flatter -- it's to reassure themselves that they are more powerful than we are -- I guess it really isn't enough to know they make more money than we do?

If you think about it, the sexiest men in the world aren't the ones you can picture hanging out on a street corner, throwing around and wasting perfectly good compliments on perfect strangers -- women they may not even have the desire to date or get to know. You think Jon Hamm has ever demanded that a woman "smile" for him?

Confident, sexy men who know they have a lot to offer women don't feel the need to make them feel uncomfortable on the street. And any woman who appreciates what amounts to a man tearing open a festering wound of insecurity and allowing it to ooze across the stilettos that inspired so many tasteless comments is selling herself short.